Environmental control using a chaotic function

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9727037-B2
Application number	US-201213594236-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 24, 2012
Priority date	Aug 24, 2012
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

One or more controlled environmental conditions have a characteristic thereof that varies over time at least in part in accordance with a chaotic function. Variable control, for example, may control one or more characteristics of visible lighting of the environmentally controlled space. Examples of lighting characteristics that may be controlled in such a manner include spectral content, intensity, color temperature, chromaticity difference or Delta_uv, and polarization. In addition or instead, one or more characteristics of the atmosphere in the controlled environment may be controlled based on a chaotic function. Examples of atmospheric characteristics that may be controlled in such a manner include temperature, humidity, air pressure, ionization, electromagnetic fields, precipitation, visibility, wind, smell and chemical composition. A sound system may also provide a chaotic component to the environment in the environmentally controlled space.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of environmental control, comprising steps of:
automatically producing a chaotic variation of a controlled characteristic of a first environmental condition in a space to be utilized by one or more occupants, during a period of time less than a day, at least in part in accordance with a first chaotic function that produces one of quad-stable results or unstable results with attractors in the chaotically varied controlled characteristic of the first environmental condition; and
automatically producing a chaotic variation of a controlled characteristic of a second environmental condition in the space, different from the first environmental condition, during a period of time less than a day when the space is occupied, at least in part in accordance with a second chaotic function that produces one of quad-stable results or unstable results with attractors in the chaotically varied controlled characteristic of the second environmental condition, wherein:
the first environmental condition is artificial visible illumination within the space; and
the second environmental condition is not directly related to visible illumination within the space.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first chaotic function is different from the second chaotic function.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sensing a characteristic of ambient light in the space,
wherein the step of automatically varying the characteristic of the first environmental condition comprises controlling of the variation of the characteristic of the visible illumination at least partially in response to the sensed characteristic of ambient light in the space.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second environmental condition is sound.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second environmental condition is atmospheric condition in the space.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the controlled characteristic of the first environmental condition is a characteristic of visible light in the space selected from the group consisting of: intensity of light, spectral content of light, polarization of light, color temperature of light, and chromaticity difference (Delta_uv) of light from the Planckian locus.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the controlled characteristic of the second environmental condition is a characteristic of the atmospheric condition in the space selected from the group consisting of: temperature, humidity, pressure, ionization, air movement, visibility and chemical composition.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of varying the controlled characteristic of the first environmental condition comprises varying the characteristic of the first environmental condition in accordance with a combination of a first nominal function over the period of time and the first chaotic function.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the combination of the first nominal function and the first chaotic function approximates a natural variation of the controlled characteristic of the first environmental condition.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the automatically producing steps comprises limiting variation to less than or equal to a maximum extent of variation.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the automatically producing steps comprises limiting variation to less than or equal to a maximum rate of variation.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sensing a characteristic of ambient relative to one of the controlled characteristics in the space,
wherein at least one of the steps of automatically producing controlled variation is at least partially responsive to the sensed ambient characteristic.

13. An article of manufacture, comprising a non-transitory machine readable medium and instructions embodied in the medium for configuring a programmable controller of an environmental control system to implement the method of claim 1 .

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein each chaotic function comprises a mathematical expression that determines the variation of the respective controlled characteristic in a dynamic manner that appears random or lacking in order.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein each mathematical expression is dynamic and highly sensitive to an initial condition.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first chaotic function comprises a first mathematical expression;
the second chaotic function comprises a second mathematical expression; and
the first mathematical expression is the same as the second mathematical expression.

17. A method of environmental control, comprising steps of:
automatically producing a chaotic variation of a controlled characteristic of a first environmental condition in a space to be utilized by one or more occupants, during a period of time less than a day, at least in part in accordance with a first chaotic function; and
automatically producing a chaotic variation of a controlled characteristic of a second environmental condition in the space, different from the first environmental condition, over a period of time less than a day, at least in part in accordance with a second chaotic function, wherein:
the step of chaotically varying the controlled characteristic of the first environmental condition comprises varying the controlled characteristic of the first environmental condition in accordance with a combination of a first nominal function and the first chaotic function;
the step of chaotically varying the controlled characteristic of the second environmental condition comprises varying the controlled characteristic of the second environmental condition in accordance with a combination of a second nominal function and the second chaotic function;
when the space is occupied, variations of the controlled characteristics of the environmental conditions impact perception of the space by a human occupant of the space; and
the second nominal function is different from the first nominal function.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the combination of the second nominal function and the second chaotic function approximates a natural variation of the controlled characteristic of the second environmental condition.

19. An environmental control system, comprising:
a first environmental conditioner configured to control of a characteristic of a first environmental condition in a space to be utilized by one or more occupants, so as to automatically chaotically vary the controlled characteristic of the first environmental condition during a period of time less than a day, at least in part in accordance with a first chaotic function that produces one of quad-stable results or unstable results with attractors in the chaotically varied controlled characteristic of the first environmental condition, the first environmental conditioner comprising a controlled lighting device for illuminating the space; and
a second environmental conditioner configured to control of a characteristic of a second environmental condition in the space different from the first environmental condition, so as to automatically chaotically vary the controlled characteristic of the second environmental condition during a period of time less than a day when the space is occupied, at least in part in accordance with a second chaotic function that produces one of quad-stable results or unstable results with attractors in the chaotically varied controlled characteristic of the second environmental condition.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the second environmental cond

Assignees

• Rains Jr Jack C
• Ramer David P
• Abl Ip Holding Llc

Inventors

• Rains Jr Jack C
• Ramer David P

Classifications

• G05B2219/2642

  Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house · CPC title

• G05B15/02 Primary

  electric · CPC title